Mind Games
by Doomsday Sisters
Summary: The Doctor and Rose think it's just another random landing. But a single notebook page reading "Don't look or it takes you," suggests otherwise. A single direction - don't turn around. Don't turn around and you'll be safe. Don't turn around and you won't die. However, things are never that simple with the Doctor.
1. Chapter 1

Hello there! This is Alyssa and Larissa, we're a joint account. Basically this is how our stories are going to work. They're essentially one shots. The first chapter is the editied, finished and polished copy. The second chapter is basically the same thing (maybe some grammar errors here and there) with our commentary. We start all of our writing at 3 am so the commentary is a bit...strange. Anyways, here's the chapter without commentary.

We don't own Doctor Who.

Allons-y!

* * *

The TARDIS landed with its usual _vwoop, vwoop _in the dark forest. Rose and the Doctor were laughing like usual, until the lights inside the TARDIS started to flicker. The Doctor went to look at the monitor, but it wouldn't respond. The screen had gone pitch black and the lights started to go out.

"Doctor, what's goin' on?"

"Something's wrong," said the Doctor, stating the obvious. He grabbed his overcoat and bounded over to the TARDIS doors, throwing them open revealing the dark forest in front of them.

"Where are we?" asked Rose, looking around and closing the doors of the TARDIS behind her.

"Good question," replied the Doctor, taking his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. He headed over to one of the trees, scanning it up and down. Rose examined the forest in front of her. There were two paths leading in opposite directions; one to the right and one to the left.

"Doctor, what are you scannin' a tree for?" she asked, a tad annoyed.

"To try and see where we are," he paused, continuing to scan. "It seems like we're still on Earth, but where and when is a better question."

"Thought you always knew where we were."

"I've never even seen a place like this before."

"Doctor, it's just a forest," Rose said like she was pointing out the obvious to a small child.

"No, no something's off. Can't you feel it? Something's…_wrong _here."

Then Rose noticed a note on one of the trees to her left.

"Doctor, what is that?" Rose asked walking up to the tree.

"It appears to be a note," the Doctor said, once again stating the obvious. He walked over to the tree and she moved out of the way, allowing him room to examine the page or do whatever it is he was planning to do with it.

"Yeah, but why is it here?"

"I don't know…maybe it's…or maybe…no it can't be…" the Doctor continued, trailing off with every new idea.

"What is it?" Rose asked, moving closer to the Doctor.

Moving so she would be able to see around him, Rose caught a good look at the page attached to the tree.

"Don't look or it takes you…Doctor, what does that mean?"

He turned to her with a serious look, "It means we're in danger."

"What'd you mean? We're always in danger."

"No Rose, this time we are in real danger. Think of the most dangerous situation we've been in so far and then add on about six more suitcases of bad."

Rose paled.

"Rose, whatever you do, _do not _leave my side and under no circumstances do you _turn around._ Do you understand?"

"Yeah but, why?"

"It's too difficult to explain right now…" [THIS THING I CAN'T GET THE GRAMMAR RIGHT ON THIS SETANCE I CAN'T TYPE ITS 3 F'IN AM]

"Doctor-"

"Rose. If this thing gets you, I will lose you. Forever," the Doctor took her hand in his and squeezed it, reiterating his concern.

Just then there was a crack, like the sound of a tree branch being snapped behind them.

Instinctively, Rose went to turn her head around but the Doctor tightened his grasp on her hand, reminding her of what he said.

"Don't," he whispered, fear lacing the edges of his voice.

"I know," she said, working hard to keep the fear from creeping into her voice as well. When the Doctor was visibly scared, she knew that whatever was behind them was not something to be taken lightly. He was afraid of losing her, and she was afraid of losing him.

"Doctor, what exactly is behind us? I know you said it's complicated but…"

"Well…how to put this…" he paused.

"Go on," Rose encouraged.

"I heard this story once, never came face to face with the rumor, so I never thought it was true," he paused, looking over at Rose before continuing.

"There's an old legend about a creature in the woods that warns its victims, playing mind games with them, making them _believe _they have a chance to escape when they're already trapped. All they have to do is look at the creature for too long, and bam! It takes you."

"Why haven't I heard it before?" asked Rose.

"Well, when I said it was old I meant more buried and ancient. There are probably only a few people alive in your time who have even heard about it. It died out years ago."

"So why do you think we're in that…creature's forest?"

"Can't you feel it, Rose? Something's off. Very, very off."

"So?"

"I've been almost all over the universe and seen almost all of time itself, but yet I've never felt such fear and paranoia in the air before. And I've been to a lot of scary places. It's the only myth that seemed to scare everyone that heard it to the core. Assuming this is where it originated from, I can understand why."

"So, what do we do now, Doctor? Can't we just get away in the TARDIS?"

"Don't think so…something pulled the TARDIS here and then cut its power. So it appears we're going to be stuck here for a bit…"

"So then what's the plan?"

"Not really sure. I'll come up with something, eventually."

The Doctor seeming to have some sort of plan, pulled a flashlight out of his bigger-on-the-inside pockets and began to walk forward.

"Follow me," he said. "and remember, don't leave my side."

Rose nodded. "Uh, Doctor, is there something in particular that we are looking for?"

"Not really, no. Not unless you care to look for the seven other notes throughout the forest…" The Doctor trailed off.

"Wait, what other notes?"

The Doctor took a while to respond as they continued to walk through the forest.

"Remember how I said that this creature plays mind games?"

Rose nodded.

"Well, one of these games is to hide eight notes around the forest, letting whoever he is tricking believe that if they find the notes, they'll get out safely…"

"But what really happens?"

The Doctor stayed silent.

"Doctor?"

"…I don't know. No one's ever come back from here, so I don't know if playing along with its mind games will help or not."

"Are we…are we gonna die here?" Rose asked, no longer trying to hide back her fear. She looked to the Doctor who had a grim expression plastered onto his face.

"I will not let this thing kill you, Rose. I promise you that," he squeezed her hand again and she noticed the determination lingering in his brown eyes that were clouded so heavily by fear. Fear for himself, and also fear for her.

"So, eight pages, yeah?" Rose asked, trying to pull the Doctor's attention away from the idea of her possible death.

"Find all eight pages. We've already got one."

"Seven more to go," said Rose, a little too lightheartedly for the situation they were in. But it put a small smile on the Doctor's face, removing his pain for a little while at least.

"Allons-y!"

They continued to walk, not really aiming to go anywhere, just trying to keep each other from freaking out. They skimmed every so often for another note. Soon they came to an abandoned red Chevy truck.

"Doctor, why do you suppose this is here?"

"Don't know," the Doctor replied, taking out his sonic screwdriver, and then leading Rose up to the truck. He began scanning the truck.

"Anything?" Rose asked.

"Nope, nada, zip, zero. There is absolutely nothing here."

"Do you think there's a note hidden here?"

"Why don't we check," the Doctor said.

The Doctor opened one of the doors and scanned the inside of the Chevy, but was still unable to find anything.

"I guess it's just an old truck. Maybe it belonged to someone just like us," Rose offered.

"No, it's placed too conveniently. Whatever's playing this game with us put it here to trip people up. The path leads right to it and continues on. The truck could be parked anywhere in the forest but why at a certain clearing. It's to trip people up, part of the game. There must be land marks scattered about but only some of them contain pages or maybe none at all. They're there to get your attention, to make you turn around."

He paused putting the sonic away. "Whatever this is, it likes to play with its food."

"So, what do we do now?"

"Well, it doesn't appear that there are any pages here, so allons-y, Rose."

The duo walked side by side down the path, the Doctor holding the flashlight in front of them to illuminate the dark forest.

The clearing soon disappeared behind them and both sides of the path were lined with dense trees. Another clearing started to form up ahead and the Doctor took off running towards it, dragging Rose with him.

They were met with a large silver and blue tanker parked in the middle of the clearing with a piece of notebook paper taped to the back.

"A note!"

The Doctor rushed over and snatched it from the tanker, examining the piece of paper.

In thick, messy black ink, the words "LEAVE ME ALONE" were scrawled across the page seven time.

"What's it mean, Doctor?"

"I don't know…" he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, scanning the page. Unable to find anything, the Doctor put his sonic away and tucked the page into one of his bigger-on-the-inside pockets along with the first page.

"Do these notes have any meanin', Doctor?"

"Not sure, yet. It could be…hmm no, not that. But then…no, that doesn't work either. Well, I'm sure if they mean anything we'll find out eventually…"

They continued to walk, following the path. Every so often, they would hear a crack coming from behind. It took Rose everything she had not to turn around. Eventually they came up to a tunnel.

"Curious, very curious…" the Doctor said, taking out his sonic screwdriver to scan the tunnel.

Rose opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor beat her to it, "Nope, nothing again. There is absolutely no reading coming from anything around here."

"Is there a page anywhere, Doctor?"

"Not that I see," he paused, "we should keep moving. Don't want that creature to catch up with us, eh?"

"Is…is it chasin' us?"

"Not yet, but it is following us. We can't turn around or else we'll see it."

"It's usually a good thing to want to know what the thing trying to kill you looks like."

"Not here. See, according to the legends, if you're looking at this thing, it can take you. But only when you're looking at. That's why you can't turn around."

"Can't risk lookin' at it," finished Rose, understanding their situation a little more clearly.

"Exactly. But why does it want us? More specifically, what does it want from us?"

"Probably just to kill us or…or eat us…"

"It could have anyone! Why us? What's so important? What am I missing?" the Doctor ran his hands through his hair, trying to think.

"Well, you're pretty well known and a Time Lord. It also might want the TARDIS."

The Doctor clapped his hands together, jumping in the air, "The TARDIS! Of course! How could I forget her! It's after her! Oh, this thing is _good._"

"Sorry?"

"I'm the last Time Lord out there, and that's the last TARDIS out there as well. You can't get inside the TARDIS without a key, and no one can get near those keys unless they pry them from our corpses. If this creature could get inside the TARDIS, oh! The power!" the Doctor looked at Rose, "If this thing could get inside the TARDIS, it could end up destroying the whole of space and time. The power that it would have access to in there could give it the ability to feed off of life forever. If that thing gets inside the TARDIS, we might all never be born. But! That won't really matter if it does manage to get inside."

"Why's that?" Rose asked, fearing the answer she knew was coming.

The Doctor's mood sobered and his expression grew darker and softer, "Because for it to get inside, we'll have to be dead. It knows we're not going to hand over the TARDIS without a fight, and it knows that it will only get these keys from us after we're dead. So somehow, we must've flown over and it pulled the TARDIS in, seeking the opportunity to get unlimited power. We're not important at all."

"It just wants the keys."

"And it'll kill us to get them," the Doctor took Rose's hand again, "But I'm not gonna let it touch you."

She looked up at him, "And I'm not gonna let it touch you either, Doctor. We're in this together."

A smile cracked on his face and the two walked through the tunnel, only to meet a thick mess of trees in front of them.

"We can't turn around and go back on the path, so we'll just have to find our way back through this," said the Doctor, leading them forward.

"Use the stars as a guide," Rose said, looking up at the glimmering lights above them. The Doctor looked up with her, the smile remaining on his face.

"Rose Tyler, you are brilliant," he looked over and her gaze remained fixed on the stars. He wouldn't let anything hurt her, if it was the last thing he ever did. Rose was the light that had healed him so long ago; she was all he had. She was everything to him, and he knew he could never tell her. He was afraid she would run off if she knew the truth. It sounded silly, but he couldn't risk losing her. Ever. He smiled as he looked at her, thinking to himself how wonderful she was and she didn't even know it. Other people didn't see Rose as anything special, but to him she was in her own class.

She was the one who had saved him. And now it was his turn to save her.

They headed to the overgrown forest. "Now, remember, no matter what, under no circumstances, will you ever turn around and look back."

"I know, Doctor, I know."

Continuing through the woods they were mostly quiet. Even though the creature was probably following them, they didn't want to give any hints as to where they were if it wasn't. Every so often, the Doctor would look up at the sky, using the stars as a guide to their next location.

Once in a while there would be a creak or a crack of something snapping. But they kept moving, forward, not looking back. Eventually they came to a clearing where there seemed to be several wooden pillars.

"Doctor, what is this supposed to be?"

"Not sure Rose. They almost look like trees with the tops cut off. I wonder…" the Doctor trailed off, pulling out his sonic screwdriver once again.

"Hey, Doctor, look at this."

"Yeah, Rose. What is it?" he said, putting away the sonic screwdriver.

"It's another one of those notes."

The Doctor walked up to where Rose was standing, "what's this one say?"

"Nothin'. There's just a picture of a bunch of trees and a man. Who has _really_ long arms, by the way."

"Hmm…wonder why this one doesn't say anything, and the other two do..."

"Do you think it has any meanin'?"

"Not really sure, but hey if what the thing really wants is the TARDIS, then I think these pages are really just a distraction to keep us occupied."

"Well, hey, we can look at it this way. We've gotten three pages now, only five more to go. I think we might just be ok."

"Lemme see that page."

Rose handed over the crude drawing to the Doctor who scanned it with his sonic (quite like everything else) and examined it with a studious gaze.

"Is it…it can't be…but…that's impossible…that's absolutely impossible!"

"Doctor?"

"They should be gone…this isn't possible!" the Doctor knotted his hands in his hair like it would somehow give him an answer.

"Doctor, just tell me what's wrong!"

"These creatures, the one here in the picture, they shouldn't exist anymore. At all. They were placed inside a time lock, on the outer edge of the universe. They should have been virtually erased from existence! Now this, this is just a drawing but when you put the pieces together it makes sense! It shouldn't even be possible though!" the Doctor paused, trailing off. "It escaped, it ran. It's just like me. We should be dead and gone but we're not. Instead we're the last of our kind."

The Doctor started to walk away from the topless trees and down the path in front of them, Rose running up next to him.

"Doctor, I'm sorry I'm asking so many questions but you're not making any sense what is goin' on?"

The Doctor didn't even falter as he began to explain things to Rose, "The Time War wasn't between just the Daleks and the Time Lords. It involved countless other planets and races, several of which were wiped from existence. This one…I had a hunch this creature might have been from there…their species was cast off to the edge of the universe and imprisoned inside a Time Lock. The same thing happened to my people. But I escaped it, mainly because I caused it. It seems we have a refugee from there too."

"But I don't understand, it's just a picture, and not a very good one at that."

"It's a clue. It knows that I know what it can do. Don't look at its face; don't turn around, impossibly long arms, the broken technology, and the mind games. It's practically telling me flat out what planet it came from, and once you spot the TARDIS you know where I'm from. It's not just looking for power but revenge! My people locked its people away and now it has a chance to get back at me! Why didn't I see it sooner?"

"What is it?"

"Their real name is lost, unknown to the universe. They're so ancient that most people have long forgotten them. I came to know them as the Slendermen, and the one that has us here is the last one. My people locked them away because they were too powerful and too dark. They had the defenses and firepower of a Dalek and the mindset of an angry Time Lord all rolled into their bodies. It wants the TARDIS, but it also wants revenge. That's why it's leaving these clues for us, why it's playing these mind games. It wants me to know who my murderer is before I die."

The pair had been walking and reached yet another clearing with two brick walls that crisscrossed so they made a perpendicular x.

"It's planting these clearings and landmarks for its game. I have a feeling it's going to get more difficult as we go along," murmured the Doctor, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and scanning the first corner.

"Nope, still nothing…wait...wait…I'm picking something up now…no…it can't…but…" the Doctor began to pace, running his hand through is head as well.

"What is it?"

He didn't respond, still deep in thought.

"Doctor, there's another page here. It's another drawing, only it says 'FOLLOWS'…"

"What-" the Doctor started to ask as he tore down the paper from the brick wall.

Just then there was a crack, louder than any others they had heard before.

"He's here…"

"Wha-"

"RUN!" the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and took off, running forwards.

Without question, Rose's feet kicked into gear and followed the Doctor's command before her own brain could comprehend what was going on. Blood pounded in her ears as they ran for their lives from whatever the hell was following them.

Rose could feel the creature behind them growing closer, hot on their heels. The Doctor's legs pushed him faster and farther along, but Rose struggled to keep pace. He was running far faster than usual.

It was dark, the flashlight's beam bounced around the woods giving them no way to light their path. The sound of blood pounding in her ears grew louder as the continued to run. They haphazardly dodged trees and she held onto the Doctor's hand for dear life.

With the flashlight bouncing around, Rose had no idea where her feet were landing. She couldn't see the ground below her. Her foot caught on a tree root sticking up from the ground. She fell forward, letting go of the Doctors hand to brace her fall.

The realization that Rose had let go didn't come until he went to tighten his grasp on her hand. He stopped then, dead in his tracks. His first thought: _I've failed her. _

The Doctor's mind raced. He couldn't finish any of his sentences.

He turned around to see if she was still there. His hearts skipped a beat when he realized that she was only a few feet away. He went to run back to her when he noticed what was behind her. Standing only a foot away was the Slenderman. The Doctors breath caught in his throat.

"ROSE!"

She looked up, then behind her to see what the Doctor was looking at.

"NO!" the Doctor screamed but it was too late. She had already turned around.

Rose knew she was supposed to be getting up and running for her life, but she was frozen in place. It was like her legs were cemented to the ground.

In front of her was an unnaturally tall man dressed in a pitch black suit looming over her. Several black tentacle like arms protruded from his back, floating around him like they were poised to strike at any moment. His face though, was what nailed Rose to the ground. He had no face. It was just a blank, featureless head attached to a towering man, but yet somehow Rose could still see the anger etched into its face. The blood pounding in her ears crescendoed to an unbearable volume as she stared up at the monster in front of her.

_I've failed her, I've failed her_, he couldn't stop the single thought from repeating over and over inside his head as he turned and ran towards Rose. He felt like he was running underwater, his legs weighed down and his shoes made from lead. Every second seemed to last forever, only thinking _I've failed her, I've failed her._

He failed her, and his light was going to go out.

It felt like eternity, but the Doctor finally reached Rose. Stumbling down to help lift her up, he grabbed her by her upper arm and hefted her to her feet, pulling her along with him.

"LOOK AWAY. ROSE, RUN!"

Rose's head was pounding. Not only was the volume unbearable, but there was a high pitched static constantly flowing through her head. She could feel herself being picked up, but her limbs wouldn't respond. She couldn't think straight. Everything hurt. And she was far more than afraid.

The Doctor, not able to get Rose to move, picked her up and started to run. He hoped he could get her far enough away from the Slenderman before he came after them. She seemed almost unresponsive. He could feel her heart beating, and her chest rising and falling with a breath.

Finally Rose moved. The Doctor put her down and grabbed her hand once again, this time holding on even tighter than before. They ran, hard and fast. Running on nothing but the adrenaline pumping through their veins. They continued to run until they reached a boulder surrounded by several jagged rocks.

Rose and the Doctor slowed, and then came to a stop. Rose was panting, still in somewhat of a shock.

The Doctor, whose hearts raced with worry, went to Rose to check if she was ok. He noticed as they ran that she had a slight bit of a limp. He knew that her leg was at least sprained. He did a visual scan to see if she was bruised or broken in any way. It seemed that she was physically ok. But mentally, there was no way of telling.

"Rose, I, uh, know your probably not, but are you ok?" his voice was strained a little, still full of worry.

Rose looked up at him with those eyes. She was fear stricken. He could see it in her eyes. Her mouth opened and then closed. She looked down, then back up, opening her mouth once more.

She tried to speak, but nothing came out.

"Right, then."

Rose looked the Doctor in the eyes, seeing the fear and worry and protectiveness. She tried to speak again, hoping that this time words would form. However, yet again nothing came out of her mouth.

Rose started to panic. What had happened to her voice? Fear and worry were etched into the Doctor's features, almost carving them into his features like stone.

"Rose? Rose, can you speak?" the Doctor's voice picked up a bit of panic and he held onto her shoulders protectively.

She shook her head and tears formed in her eyes, streaming down her cheeks. Watching Rose cry broke the Doctor's hearts into millions of little pieces. He couldn't do it, and he knew it was his fault.

"Rose, Rose listen to me, it's ok. You'll be ok. You need to calm down," his voice was soft and comforting as he rubbed her shoulders. She continued to cry, eliciting a sniffle. Her head was down and the Doctor knew it was a bold move for him but he shoved reason to the back of his head and moved one of his hands from her shoulder to cup her cheek, lifting her head up.

Her teary eyes met his pain filled brown ones. They both looked broken as they gazed at each other.

"Rose, you'll be fine. You're just in shock. Your voice will come back when you calm down and your body returns to normal. Just try to breathe."

Rose nodded, her eyeliner and mascara smeared across her face. The Doctor had no idea where his sudden bout of confidence and levelheadedness came from, but he was sure glad he had it.

"Rose, I am so, _so _sorry. I am so sorry this ever happened and we ever landed here. It's my fault and I'm honestly so-" he was cut off when, with trouble, Rose pushed herself forward and enveloped the Doctor in a hug. She pulled him tight in her arms and it took him a moment to get over the fact that she was hugging him before he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her neck and hair.

She smiled and she felt the Doctor's arms wrap around her back and she could feel her pulse slow and try to regain its normal rhythm. Comfortingly, Rose drew circles on the Doctor's back and whispered a calming "shhh" in his ear.

"I'm so sorry Rose, I'm so-"

"Shhh"

It wasn't her telling him to hush, but her calming him down like a mother would console her crying child. If she had her voice, she would have been able to tell him that he had no reason to be sorry, that this couldn't possibly be his fault. If anything, it was her fault. She was the idiot that tripped and almost got them killed by that…Slenderman thing. She was the one who couldn't get up and she wanted nothing more than to tell him that it wasn't his fault.

The Doctor didn't let go of Rose. He wanted to make sure that she knew he had her and that he was never going to let her go again. He wanted to make sure she knew that he would be there for her through the ends of time and space.

The Doctor's mind raced, trying to think of different ways that they could get out of here. They could head back to the TARDIS, but that might be a little risky. And there was no telling whether or not the power was back on inside. The only other plausible option he saw was to stay and get the rest of the eight pages. But he knew that if Rose couldn't go on, then he would find some other option.

"Rose," he said pulling his head back from her shoulder and lifting her chin to look her in the eyes. "I need to know if you're ok to go on. We should either head back to the TARDIS or keep going and look for the rest of the notes. Either way, I don't think it would be the best idea to stay here."

Rose looked at the Doctor, she saw in his eyes reassurance, and felt that as long as they were together, nothing bad could happen. She nodded her head to let him know that she was ok to go on.

To show that she wanted to explore some more, she slowly stood up on shaky legs. She took a slow step forward and felt a sharp pain in her left ankle. She lost her balance and began to fall backwards. The Doctor caught her and whispered in her ear, "I got you."

With his help, Rose stood up once again. She leaned against the Doctor for support and together they walked towards the rock foundations. Right away the Doctor noticed a sheet of notebook paper attached to the rock.

"Here we go! Another page!" continuing to support Rose with one arm, the Doctor snatched the fifth page from the rocks and stuffed it into his pockets, not bothering to read what it said. It didn't matter to him anymore. All that mattered was getting Rose out safe.

Walking forward, the Doctor noticed that instead of two paths breaking out from the clearing there were three. The middle one led to an even larger clearing in what appeared to be the center of the forest.

Around seven or eight oil tanks sat parked in front of them in the clearing. Beyond that the Doctor could've sworn he saw a building. Why would there be a building in the middle of a forest?

"Rose, you alright?" the Doctor asked, making sure she was ok. She nodded and started to move forward, still supported by the Doctor. She tried putting weight on her injured ankle and let out a hiss in pain. Protectiveness and guilt shot through the Doctor like a bolt of lightning as he tightened his grip around her and pulled her closer.

"I guess not," he murmured and she shot him a dark look that clearly read, "I'm fine shut up" but he was having none of it. It was his fault, and it killed him that she was in pain.

"We only have three more pages to go, and then we've beaten this Slenderman's stupid game," he said as he maneuvered himself and Rose around the oil tanks, searching for a possible page. On about the fourth tank he inspected, he found another page that read "ALWAYS WATCHES, NO EYES". The Doctor grimaced as he snatched the page down, remembering the glimpse he got of Slenderman's featureless face.

He shoved the page into his bigger-on-the-inside pockets and lead Rose across the clearing to the building. When they reached it, The Doctor, out of instinct, took out his sonic screwdriver. He quickly scanned the area.

"There doesn't seem to be anything here, so I think we are good for a little while."

The Doctor and Rose looked around the building for an entrance. When they found one the Doctor asked Rose, "Do you want to see if there's a note in here or do you want to stop?"

She nodded once then gave him a look telling him that she was going to go in the building no matter what.

Once they entered, they noticed that the hallways were only big enough for one person in width.

"Ok, so here's the plan," The Doctor said, "you are going to go in front of me, and I will take the back. I promise I won't leave you." He took Rose's hand in his and squeezed tightly to show that he was there and wasn't going to leave.

Rose went forward first, with the Doctor following right behind. He still held her hand, afraid that if he let go, she would disappear into thin air. He kept his head a bit to the left so he could see what was coming up. Whenever they came to a turn he would mumble a direction into her ear.

Every so often she would stumble and fall backwards, but he was there to catch her, just like he promised.

They were walking at a steady pace when all of a sudden Rose stopped dead in her tracks.

They were at the beginning of a long hallway with an eerie feel to it. At the end of a hallway they was a small light, and just seconds before, Rose thought she saw a shadow move across it.

"What is it, what do you see?"

She turned and looked at him, shaking her head, trying to show that she thought it was nothing, just her imagination. He didn't understand her gestures though. The Doctor saw the light at the end of the hallway and thought there could be something there.

"I'm going to go see what's there."

Still holding Rose's hand, he took a step past her then together they walked forward. He took a few steps forward, guiding Rose behind him. He tightened his grip on her hand now that she was behind him, afraid now that he could no longer see her directly in front of him.

Rose took deep breaths, trying to calm her haywire nerves. The Doctor was right there, nothing was going to happen. Of course, that's when it did happen. Rose felt a chill down her spine and the hair on her neck raise. She felt cold arms wrap around her and her blood ran cold. She tried to scream, to do something to let the Doctor know that _it_ was behind her, but she couldn't. Her voice was still gone and the arm that the Doctor wasn't holding was being held tight against her side. Rose began panicking inside; wondering what was going to happen to her. She tightened her grip as hard as she could on the Doctor's hand, enough that she was wondering how he was still able to feel it.

"Just a little bit farther Rose," the Doctor said, hoping to regain feeling in the hand behind him holding onto Rose. But he knew she was scared like him so he just squeezed back. Fear rushed into Rose's mind.

He didn't get her message. She was helpless.

He went to hold a bit tighter on her hand and noticed that he no longer had her hand in his. He whipped around, wondering if she had fallen once again. But she wasn't there. She was nowhere in sight. The Doctors hearts began to race once again as he ran back to where they had come from. He couldn't stop thinking about how he promised her that he wouldn't leave her and now she was gone.

It was then that the ear piercing scream came. It was a voice that the Doctor would know forever. It was _her _voice. He began running faster.

"DOCTOR!" Rose hoarsely screamed, her voice shocked back into functioning.

The Doctor panicked. He'd let her go again. He'd lost her again. She had disappeared once again and it was all his fault. He had to find her, protect her, no matter what the cost.

_I cannot lose her._ It was the only thought pumping through his brain, the only thing that kept him going. Because a life without Rose was nothing.

"ROSE! ROSE HOLD ON!" the Doctor screamed, running down the halls after her.

The white tile blurred as he ran down corridor after corridor, searching for Rose. Blood pounded in his ears, his hearts racing at impossible speeds. His legs moved as fast as they could, but yet he pushed his body harder and harder, further and further.

"ROSE!" _I cannot lose her. I cannot lose her I _promised _her I would protect her I _cannot _lose her!_

The Doctor rounded corner after corner, praying that he'd see some sign of her. A flash of blonde hair, a dash of color, and he prayed to anything out there that he would be able to find her.

_I'm nothing without her. Nothing. She saved me. _

He couldn't move fast enough. He pushed his body far past his limits, but to him he was moving at a snail's pace. He knew he wasn't going to find her in time to save her.

_I promised her I would protect her I _promised _her I _promised_ her!_

Color. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a splash of color against the blurred white. Coming to a halting stop, the Doctor turned and ran towards the splash of color he saw.

Down the hall as the white blurred, more color started to dance its way in. A splash here, a splash there.

The color started to grow on the floor and as the Doctor neared the end of the hall, he slowed to a walk, staring at what he saw on the floor.

Pools of blood adorned the white tile in front of his feet. His heartbeat pounded inside his head and he walked around it, a pit forming in the bottom of his stomach.

He knew what he would see, turning this corner into the room but he didn't want to believe it. He couldn't bring himself to.

The room was drenched in blood. The white tiles were smeared together with the crimson liquid sprayed and painted all across the room. It pooled on the floor and splattered the walls, dripping down like beads of water on a window. A few drops fell from the ceiling as if they were warning drops of rain. One landed on his cheek and rolled down like a bloody tear, but the Doctor was too paralyzed with guilt to wipe it away or even give it a thought.

Staring him in the face, accusing him of his guilt was a piece of notebook paper attached to the wall. Bloody fingerprints decorated it, and in blood the words "HELP ME" were haphazardly scrawled and smeared.

He knew he had been too slow. He knew he had been too late.

"Rose…"

He knew what the Slenderman was capable of. They were a fast species, faster than light. They held the element of stealth and surprise, and it was second nature for them to blend in with the darkness. Of course, he also knew about their arms, and what their arms could do. Finding this amount of fresh blood and no body made far too much sense to the Doctor. He knew what they could do, and he knew what this one had done.

Slowly, the Doctor walked across the room to the sheet of paper confirming his crimes. Gingerly, he plucked it from the wall and held it in his hand, eyes never leaving the page even as his vision blurred with tears. His trainers were soaked in blood (_her blood, Rose's blood) _as he walked over and back, staring at her final message.

He couldn't do it.

He couldn't save her.

He had failed her.

And now…Rose was…

Misery, guilt, sorrow and despair all transformed into boiling hot rage in an instant. He clutched the paper tightly in his hand, storming out of the claustrophobic white building. His anger pooled beneath him, bubbling and boiling in the pit of his soul. It drew every emotion and every thought into its storm. He wasn't the Doctor, not anymore. Not after what this thing had done to Rose.

_I failed her I promised her I would protect her and I_ failed_ her and whatever the hell this thing is, it's going to _pay.

The Doctor's blood boiled, filling with rage. Slenderman was going to pay, and was going to pay for it big. No one can take Rose away from the Doctor and get away from it.

Storming out of the clearing, the Doctor saw another landmark out of the corner of his eye and ran off towards it, anger fueling his body. He reached what appeared to be a metal silo with a final note attached to the side, reading "CAN'T RUN".

He tore the note down, fire burning in his eyes.

"WHATEVER MADE YOU THINK I WAS RUNNING?! SHOW YOURSELF! I HAVE ALL EIGHT PAGES I BEAT YOUR STUPID LITTLE MIND GAME, SLENDERMAN!"

He paused, his anger growing.

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

"NO ONE HURTS MY ROSE TYLER AND GETS AWAY WITH IT. WHEN YOU WENT AFTER HER YOU MADE THIS PERSONAL. AND NOW YOU'RE GOING TO GET WHAT YOU DESERVE. BECAUSE THERE IS NOWHERE IN THIS UNIVERSE THAT YOU CAN HIDE. NO CORNER OF TIME THAT WILL KEEP YOU HIDEN FROM ME."

"YOU WANTED MY POWER AND YOU WANTED MY TARDIS. THAT I COULD LIVE WITH, THAT I COULD FORGIVE. BUT YOU KILLED ROSE TYLER. I KILLED OFF ALL OF THE DALEKS AND TIME LORDS IN ONE MOVE. I DESTROYED PLANETS AND WIPED OUT COUNTLESS RACES, INCLUDING YOUR OWN. AND YOU JUST MURDERED THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WHOLE OF REALITY TO ME. DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HIDE?! I WILL FIND YOU! AND WHEREVER YOU ARE I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL MAKE SURE YOU FEEL HER PAIN AND MY PAIN! DO YOU HEAR ME?! I AM THE DOCTOR, AND YOU'RE GOING TO SHOW YOURSELF BEFORE I HAVE TO HUNT YOU DOWN BECAUSE BELIEVE ME I WILL TRACK YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE UNIVERSE. YOU HAVE MADE YOUR LAST MISTAKE SLENDERMAN, BECAUSE YOU TOOK ROSE TYLER. THERE IS NOWHERE TO HIDE BECAUSE YOU KILLED HER!"

The Doctor waited there, every second that passed filled him with more rage. Moments passed, but each second felt like an eternity to the Doctor. In the silence of the forest, the Doctor could pick up a faint static noise coming from behind him.

Boldly turning around, the Doctor saw a figure off in the distance with nothing but a black suit and a white blank face.

"OVER HERE SLENDERMAN!"

The Doctor blinked and the creature was closer, towering over him about 10 feet away. The Doctor felt like he was dealing with a Weeping Angel instead, but even they would run if they had seen him like this. He was fire and ice and rage inside, and he was possibly the deadliest thing in existence right then.

The Doctor pulled out the eight pages, and held them up for Slenderman to see.

"I played your game. I went along with it. But you, you crossed the line." The Doctor took all of the pages, except for the one drenched in Rose's blood, and ripped them into a million little pieces. He took the paper and threw it at the Slenderman.

The paper fell around the faceless man like white snow. Even though he didn't have a face, the Doctor though he could see a little smirk on the Slenderman.

"You hurt her, you _killed_ her and now you have to pay. I will make sure you suffer. You will never see the light of day every again. I can promise you that."

A grumble came from the throat of the Slenderman, sounding almost like a laugh to the Doctor.

"This page," the Doctor held up the remaining page that Rose had written on in her blood for the Slenderman to see. "Do you see this page? This was from her. She wrote this to me. This was her _dying _message to me. She had to write it in her own blood. Because of you."

The static the Doctor had been constantly hearing since the Slenderman arrived grew louder, pushing its way out of the background.

"You wanted the TARDIS, right? You wanted to use it to harness the power needed to live forever. Fine!" the Doctor darted off running off to where he had parked the TARDIS in the woods. He could hear the static behind him, knowing that the Slenderman was following close behind. The Doctor knew the Slenderman wouldn't kill him yet because he still wanted a way in to the TARDIS.

The Doctor arrived at his ship and threw open the doors to reveal the dimly lit console room. The TARDIS made an approving sound when her pilot returned, however when she noticed the Slenderman and Rose's absence her mood changed entirely.

Turning a few knobs and pulling some levers, the Doctor was able to reveal a hatch.

"You wanted to see the heart of the TARDIS? You wanted the power of the vortex running through you? Well here!"

Before the Slenderman was given a chance to even comprehend what the Doctor had just said, the Doctor threw open the hatch and dived out of the way. Golden light flooded the room and greed drew the Slenderman in, causing him to gaze with his blank face into the heart of the TARDIS; to absorb the vortex.

And that's when he knew what the Doctor had planned.

"You brought this on yourself. You wanted power? Well I gave you power. But I wanted you to feel pain, and I gave you that as well." His look darkened and the Slenderman truly understood why even the Daleks and the Weeping Angels feared this man, the Oncoming Storm.

"Now burn."

His gaze remained cold and brutal as he watched the Slenderman absorb the vortex and then the vortex absorb the Slenderman from the inside. He watched its body begin to glow with that golden light like his did a year ago, and he could remember how it felt, to be burning on the inside. It only took a few minutes for the vortex to kill him, and he had stared into it as a child. It would take even less time for the Slenderman to burn.

The light became almost too bright. The Doctor shielded his eyes with his hand as the Slenderman exploded into dust, covering the entire inside of the TARDIS.

The Doctor lowered his hand, examining the ash coating every surface inside the TARDIS. At almost the exact same moment, the TARDIS powered up again and with great difficulty the Doctor was able to close the hatch to her heart without exposing himself to her light too badly.

"Sorry girl, but I had to. I had to do it for her. He…he killed Rose…"

The TARDIS let out waves of pain and sympathy for her Doctor and her Bad Wolf. The Doctor ran his hands along her console, before sitting himself down on the weathered white seat.

Collapsing in on himself, the Doctor placed his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. His fingers were sprawled across his face, as if he was trying to smooth out the creases formed on his face from worry.

_I failer her I promised her I would protect her I _promised _her I would keep her safe and now she's _dead.

Tears formed in the Time Lord's eyes as his hearts continued to shatter into billions of tiny pieces.

_I lost her. She's gone. Forever. And its all my fault._

_Jackie. What in the world am I going to tell Jackie? She'll want to see her daughter but there's nothing left...I can't run from it that wouldn't be fair to Rose._

_I'm sorry, Rose. I am so, so _so _sorry. I'm sorry you got hurt. I'm sorry we ever came here. I'm sorry I let go of your hand. I'm sorry I stood in front. I'm sorry you couldn't grow older.I'm sorry that I'll have to be the one to tell your mother._

_I'm sorry you died , Rose. I'm sorry I let you get killed and I am so very, very , _very _sorry for the amount of pain that you went through when he...when he..._

_I know nothing I say will change things or make this pain any easier to bear. Death is irreversible. It's a fixed point in time. But Rose, I would trade anything to have died in your place anyday. I'm sorry I never told you how much you mean to me. You saved me. I was a broken man, a murderer with the blood of millions upon millions coating my hands and you healed me. I _need _you Rose Tyler and now I've lost you._

_I broke my promise and I am so, _so _sorry._

Tears streamed freely down the Doctor's cheeks, his thin form wracked with sobs. Guilt and grief overtook him, reducing him a broken mess curled in on himself begging that this was all a nightmare and he had not just let the most important thing in his world slip through his fingers.

But he knew he wasn't dreaming and that he had lost Rose forever and he would never see her again. He'd never see her smile or hear her laugh. He's never feel her hand in his or. Share in her warm embrace ever again. The Doctor let his guilt consume him, silently wondering if misery could kill for that's what it felt like.

Losing Rose was worse than dying a thousand times over.

"Doctor?"

No. No no no no no. It wasn't possible. She was gone.

"Doctor?"

Ever so slowly, the Doctor lifted his head out his hands and looked up to see...

No. It couldn't be her. I couldn't be. She was gone.

"...Rose?" The Doctor asked in a shaky voice barely above a whisper, not believing his eyes.

"Doctor, why are you cryin'?" She took a step towards him.

He blinked away a few tears, never taking his eyes from her, afraid that she would vanish.

"Rose...I..."

She gave him a puzzled look.

"I must be dreaming..." he said to himself but he couldn't recall falling asleep. He ran his hands over his face, trying to wipe away the tears and smearing the drop of her blood against his skin.

"Doctor, why is there blood on your face? What happened?"

"Rose...I...I am so _so _sorry..."

"Why?"

"I let this happen, its my fault. I should've stayed behind you I should've paid more atention to what was going on but I was afraid of losing you and now..."

"Doctor, what are you talkin' about? Nothin' happened."

That's when it hit him the Slenderman's mind games. They didn't cease with death, did they? He didn't recall falling asleep because he never did.

Rose was either a hallucination or a ghost. She wasn't real. He was wide awake and she wasn't real.

Shakily standing up, the Doctor put a hand on the back of the old white seat to steady himself and turned away from her, refusing to look at her knowing she wasn't real.

"Doctor-"

"Don't." He cut her off coldly, trying to keep his shaky voice under control. "You're not real. You can't be. He's just playing another mind game with me. He can't even let me mourn in peace."

"Why would be mournin'?"

"Because you're dead, Rose. He killed you and its _my _fault," he stated coldly.

"But I'm not dead I'm here-"

"You're just a hallucination!" The Doctor screamed, misery wracking his voice. He took several breaths through his teeth, trying to keep himself from breaking again. _She's not real, she's not real. _

"But, Doctor-"

"No. You're dead. Gone and it's all my fault…I- I…" the Doctor paused to let out a small hiccup in his voice. This was just too much for him. "I didn't save you. And it wasn't because I couldn't. Because I could have, I really could have saved you. No. It was because I _failed you_. I failed you in every way possible. I didn't pay enough attention to you. Rose Tyler, I'm so sorry. I deserve to be dead and not you."

"Doctor, what is all this that you're sayin'? I'm not dead Doctor. Nothin's happened to either of us."

The Doctor didn't understand. Why did she believe that she wasn't dead? How could she now remember the pain? He hoped that's how it was, when you died. When she died. Unless…but it couldn't be….

Nothing had happened to either of them. They were the same. Of course, that explained it. He had died as well. That's why he could see her, that's why she was so confused.

"Oh. Rose."

"Doctor, what is it?"

The Doctor realized then that when he opened the heart of the TARDIS, he must have looked into her too. The vortex killed him and the Slenderman.

So this is what death felt like. It felt like living, only knowing you weren't. This is what he had feared for all these years? It wasn't so bad, considering ghosts could talk to one another apparently. Still though, Rose would never be able to grow older or have a family. She'd never be able to do all those things in life everyone else got to because he failed her.

"Rose, don't you see. I killed the Slenderman. And in the process I caused my own death as well…"

"What are you talkin' about Doctor. Neither of us are dead. This must be his trick. This is all the Slenderman's trick. Don't you see it, Doctor?"

"No, Rose, don't you see it. We're both dead. And all because of me…" the Doctor trailed off.

Rose stood there, gaping at the Doctor. She couldn't believe it. He blamed himself for everything. I wasn't his entire fault. It was partially hers too. She was the one who tripped and then got captured later. She couldn't stand it to see him hate himself. It wasn't right. He didn't deserve this. He's done so much for her these past few months. He brought her to the end of the universe and back again. And he was always there to save her life. Now she had to do something to make sure that he knew.

Rose slowly walked towards the Doctor. He looked at her as she walked forward. When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around her, pulling him in for a tight hug. She then went on her tiptoes and gave the Doctor a kiss on the cheek.

She lifted her mouth to his ear and whispered to him, "I've _got_ you, Doctor. And I'm very much alive. And so are you."

The Doctor pulled back from her and looked her in the eyes. He saw something there in that moment and he _knew_ she wasn't dead. He _knew_ he wasn't dead either. He _knew _this wasn't a dream or some cruel hallucination. He was here and so was Rose.

"Rose Tyler," he said, joy filling his saddened voice.

"Doctor," she looked at him.

He pulled her in for a hug, picking her up along the way. Rose began laughing and the Doctor's face lit up like fireworks with a huge grin.

"You're here," the Doctor said. "But, how?"

"I don't know. One minute I was with you, then the Slenderman grabbed me and the next thing I knew, I was gone .I really don't remember anythin' that happened then, it was all a blur. Then I remember suddenly waking up, pinned against a tree by some invisible force and next thing I know it's gone. I didn't understand it, but I knew it was you who saved me. Doctor, you saved me, just like you always do."

"Oh, Rose…you see..."

Rose looked at the Doctor," so, why'd you think I was dead?"

The Doctor took a deep breath. "There was this room, and it was covered in blood. I thought it was your blood. And then there was this note…it read 'HELP ME' but it was hastily written in fresh blood. And… I thought it was you, Rose," his voice dropped to something barely above a whisper, "I thought I'd lost you."

Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand a squeezed it. "You know, Doctor. No matter how many times they try, they'll never ever be able to split us up."

She smiled at him then, and he smiled back, knowing that he got his got his light back. And know that he had her back in his grasp, he was never going to let go again.


	2. Commentary

Remember, this was written on 3 hours of sleep at 3 am...

[words]= alyssa's commentary

{words}= larissa's commentary

* * *

The TARDIS landed with its usual _vwoop, vwoop _in the dark forest. Rose and the Doctor were laughing like usual, until the lights inside the TARDIS started to flicker. The Doctor went to look at the monitor, but it wouldn't respond. The screen had gone pitch black and the lights started to go out.

"Doctor, what's goin' on?"

"Something's wrong," said the Doctor, stating the obvious. He grabbed his overcoat and bounded over to the TARDIS doors, throwing them open revealing the dark forest in front of them.

"Where are we?" asked Rose, looking around and closing the doors of the TARDIS behind her.

"Good question," replied the Doctor, taking his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. He headed over to one of the trees, scanning it up and down. Rose examined the forest in front of her. There were two paths leading in opposite directions; one to the right and one to the left.

"Doctor, what are you scannin' a tree for?" she asked, a tad annoyed.

"To try and see where we are," he paused, continuing to scan. "It seems like we're still on Earth, but where and when is a better question."

"Thought you always knew where we were."

"I've never even seen a place like this before."

"Doctor, it's just a forest," Rose said like she was pointing out the obvious to a small child.

"No, no something's off. Can't you feel it? Something's…_wrong _here."

[ANOTHER WALL

Larissa I need ideas. Moar. ]

Then Rose noticed a note on one of the trees to her left.

"Doctor, what is that?" Rose asked walking up to the tree.

"It appears to be a note," the Doctor said, once again stating the obvious. He walked over to the tree and she moved out of the way, allowing him room to examine the page or do whatever it is he was planning to do with it.

"Yeah, but why is it here?"

"I don't know…maybe it's…or maybe…no it can't be…" the Doctor continued, trailing off with every new idea.

{I'VE HIT A WALL…ALYSSA, FIGURE STUFF OUT}

[It's 3 am]

"What is it?" Rose asked, moving closer to the Doctor.

Moving so she would be able to see around him, Rose caught a good look at the page attached to the tree.

"Don't look or it takes you…Doctor, what does that mean?" [Larissa is correcting my grammar at 3 am good job]

He turned to her with a serious look, "It means we're in danger."

"What'd you mean? We're always in danger."

"No Rose, this time we are in real danger. Think of the most dangerous situation we've been in so far and then add on about six more suitcases of bad."

Rose paled.

"Rose, whatever you do, _do not _leave my side and under no circumstances do you _turn around._ Do you understand?"

"Yeah but, why?"

"It's too difficult to explain right now…" [THIS THING I CAN'T GET THE GRAMMAR RIGHT ON THIS SETANCE I CAN'T TYPE ITS 3 F'IN AM]

"Doctor-"

"Rose. If this thing gets you, I will lose you. Forever," the Doctor took her hand in his and squeezed it, reiterating his concern.

[Larissa you're up its obvious I've forgotten how to type in English]

{so type in gallafreyan}

[if the computer let me I would]

Just then there was a crack, like the sound of a tree branch being snapped behind them.

[Larissa is actually worse than I am wow. I got an idea and shoved Larissa out of the way. STOP CORRECTING MY GARMMER GOD DAMMIT]

{you spelled GRAMMAR wrong you idiot!}

[IT'S 3 AM DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE?! I AM HAPPY I CAN SPELL MY OWN NAME. AND HONETSLY I'M NOT SURE IF I CAN]

Instinctively, Rose went to turn her head around but the Doctor tightened his grasp on her hand, reminding her of what he said.

"Don't," he whispered, fear lacing the edges of his voice. [I have to retype everything like, 3 times just to spell it right]

"I know," she said, working hard to keep the fear from creeping into her voice as well. When the Doctor was visibly scared, she knew that whatever was behind them was not something to be taken lightly. He was afraid of losing her, and she was afraid of losing him.

[alright it's your turn]

{Damn…I don't know what to write..}

[shit. I guess I'll try]

"Doctor, what exactly is behind us? I know you said it's complicated but…"

[Larissa writes Ten better than I do]

"Well…how to put this…" he paused.

"Go on," Rose encouraged.

"I heard this story once, never came face to face with the rumor, so I never thought it was ture," [ture? TURE? And you have problems with my spelling] he paused, looking over at Rose before continuing.

"There's an old legend about a creature in the woods that warns its victims, playing mind games with them, making them _believe _they have a chance to escape when they're already trapped. All they have to do is look at the creature for too long, and bam! It takes you." [Grammar Nazi]

"Why haven't I heard it before?" asked Rose.

"Well, when I said it was old I meant more buried and ancient. There are probably only a few people alive in your time who have even heard about it. It died out years ago."

"So why do you think we're in that…creature's forest?"

"Can't you feel it, Rose? Something's off. Very, very off."

"So?"

"I've been almost all over the universe and seen almost all of time itself, but yet I've never felt such fear and paranoia in the air before. And I've been to a lot of scary places. It's the only myth that seemed to scare everyone that heard it to the core. Assuming this is where it originated from, I can understand why."

[your turn]

"So, what do we do now, Doctor? Can't we just get away in the TARDIS?"

"Don't think so…something pulled the TARDIS here and then cut its power. So it appears we're going to be stuck here for a bit…"

"So then what's the plan?"

"Not really sure. I'll come up with something, eventually."

[ARE WE GONNA KILK THEM?]

{I DUNNO…SHOULD WE?}

[I FIRST WANNA KNOW WHAT KILKING IS. THE QUESTIONS ASKED AT 3"30 I HIT TE WRONG BUTTON DAMMIT]

{MAYBE KILKING IS ALMOST KILLING TO THE POINT OF SOMETHING OR ANOTHER}

[IS IT KILLING WHILE MILKING? OK WE GOTTA GO DOWNSTAIRS WE ARE GETTING TOO OFTRACK AND IT HURTS HOLDING LAUGHTER IN]

[HOLD THE SHIT WHAT I MEANT TO WRITE HOLY SHIT MY MOM CAME DOWNSTAIRS AND SCARED THE LIVING CRAP OUTTA ME]

The Doctor {APPARENTLY KILKING IS A LAST NAME…AND OMG WHEATLEY!} [don't let me foregt I out my glasses on the speaker next me ] seeming to have some sort of plan, pulled a flashlight out of his bigger-on-the-inside pockets and began to walk forward.

"Follow me," he said. "and remember, don't leave my side."

Rose nodded. "Uh, Doctor, is there something in particular that we are looking for?"

"Not really, no. Not unless you care to look for the seven other notes throughout the forest…" The Doctor trailed off.

"Wait, what other notes?"

The Doctor took a while to respond as they continued to walk through the forest.

"Remember how I said that this creature plays mind games?"

Rose nodded.

"Well, one of these games is to hide eight notes around the forest, letting whoever he is tricking believe that if they find the notes, they'll get out safely…"

{Your turn…}

"But what really happens?"

The Doctor stayed silent.

"Doctor?"

"…I don't know. No one's ever come back from here, so I don't know if playing along with its mind games will help or not."

[I like this]

{four pages yo}

[yeah four pages of our idiotic sleep deprived commentary]

"Are we…are we gonna die here?" Rose asked, no longer trying to hide back her fear. She looked to the Doctor who had a grim expression plastered onto his face.

"I will not let this thing kill you, Rose. I promise you that," he squeezed her hand again and she noticed the determination lingering in his brown eyes that were clouded so heavily by fear. Fear for himself, and also fear for her.

{just then, Vours came in and took them over}

[lol yes. We need to finish this first but can you imagine Vour Doctor? Oh, the fearscapes I could make…]

"So, eight pages, yeah?" Rose asked, trying to pull the Doctor's attention away from the idea of her possible death.

"Find all eight pages. We've already got one."

"Seven more to go," said Rose, a little too lightheartedly for the situation they were in. But it put a small smile on the Doctor's face, removing his pain for a little while at least.

"Allons-y!"

[I had to drop that line I'm not sorry it's your turn I can barely see without my glasses lol if you get tired tell me we can go to bed anytime]

They continued to walk, not really aiming to go anywhere, just trying to keep each other from freaking out. They skimmed every so often for another note. Soon they came to an abandoned red Chevy truck.

"Doctor, why do you suppose this is here?"

"Don't know," the Doctor replied, taking out his sonic screwdriver, and then leading Rose up to the truck. He began scanning the truck.

"Anything?" Rose asked.

"Nope, nada, zip, zero. There is absolutely nothing here."

"Do you think there's a note hidden here?"

"Why don't we check," the Doctor said.

[it's 4 am woo hoo]

The Doctor opened one of the doors and scanned the inside of the Chevy, but was still unable to find anything.

"I guess it's just an old truck. Maybe it belonged to someone just like us," Rose offered.

"No, it's placed too conveniently. Whatever's playing this game with us put it here to trip people up. The path leads right to it and continues on. The truck could be parked anywhere in the forest but why at a certain clearing. It's to trip people up, part of the game. There must be land marks scattered about but only some of them contain pages or maybe none at all. They're there to get your attention, to make you turn around."

He paused putting the sonic away. "Whatever this is, it likes to play with its food."

[we need to stop. It's beautiful and brilliant but I need sleep]

[alright we're back we got around 3 hours of sleep and its 9 in the morning and I'm really hungry]

"So, what do we do now?"

"Well, it doesn't appear that there are any pages here, so allons-y, Rose."

[it's 10 and we've accomplished two lines]

The duo walked side by side down the path, the Doctor holding the flashlight in front of them to illuminate the dark forest.

The clearing soon disappeared behind them and both sides of the path were lined with dense trees. Another clearing started to form up ahead and the Doctor took off running towards it, dragging Rose with him.

They were met with a large silver and blue tanker parked in the middle of the clearing with a piece of notebook paper taped to the back.

"A note!"

The Doctor rushed over and snatched it from the tanker, examining the piece of paper.

In thick, messy black ink, the words "LEAVE ME ALONE" were scrawled across the page seven time.

"What's it mean, Doctor?"

"I don't know…" he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, scanning the page. Unable to find anything, the Doctor put his sonic away and tucked the page into one of his bigger-on-the-inside pockets along with the first page. {Bigger-on-the-inside pockets!}

"Do these notes have any meanin', Doctor?"

[STOP ASKING QUESTIONS ROSE]

"Not sure, yet. It could be…hmm no, not that. But then…no, that doesn't work either. Well, I'm sure if they mean anything we'll find out eventually…"

They continued to walk, following the path. Every so often, they would hear a crack coming from behind. It took Rose everything she had not to turn around. Eventually they came up to a tunnel.

"Curious, very curious…" the Doctor said, taking out his sonic screwdriver to scan the tunnel.

Rose opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor beat her to it, "Nope, nothing again. There is absolutely no reading coming from anything around here."

"Is there a page anywhere, Doctor?"

"Not that I see," he paused, "we should keep moving. Don't want that creature to catch up with us, eh?"

"Is…is it chasin' us?"

"Not yet, but it is following us. We can't turn around or else we'll see it."

"It's usually a good thing to want to know what the thing trying to kill you looks like."

"Not here. See, according to the legends, if you're looking at this thing, it can take you. But only when you're looking at. That's why you can't turn around."

"Can't risk lookin' at it," finished Rose, understanding their situation a little more clearly.

"Exactly. But why does it want us? More specifically, what does it want from us?"

"Probably just to kill us or…or eat us…"

"It could have anyone! Why us? What's so important? What am I missing?" the Doctor ran his hands through his hair, trying to think.

"Well, you're pretty well known and a Time Lord. It also might want the TARDIS."

The Doctor clapped his hands together, jumping in the air, "The TARDIS! Of course! How could I forget her! It's after her! Oh, this thing is _good._"

"Sorry?"

"I'm the last Time Lord out there, and that's the last TARDIS out there as well. You can't get inside the TARDIS without a key, and no one can get near those keys unless they pry them from our corpses. If this creature could get inside the TARDIS, oh! The power!" the Doctor looked at Rose, "If this thing could get inside the TARDIS, it could end up destroying the whole of space and time. The power that it would have access to in there could give it the ability to feed off of life forever. If that thing gets inside the TARDIS, we might all never be born. But! That won't really matter if it does manage to get inside."

"Why's that?" Rose asked, fearing the answer she knew was coming.

The Doctor's mood sobered and his expression grew darker and softer, "Because for it to get inside, we'll have to be dead. It knows we're not going to hand over the TARDIS without a fight, and it knows that it will only get these keys from us after we're dead. So somehow, we must've flown over and it pulled the TARDIS in, seeking the opportunity to get unlimited power. We're not important at all."

"It just wants the keys."

"And it'll kill us to get them," the Doctor took Rose's hand again, "But I'm not gonna let it touch you."

She looked up at him, "And I'm not gonna let it touch you either, Doctor. We're in this together."

A smile cracked on his face and the two walked through the tunnel, only to meet a thick mess of trees in front of them.

"We can't turn around and go back on the path, so we'll just have to find our way back through this," said the Doctor, leading them forward.

"Use the stars as a guide," Rose said, looking up at the glimmering lights above them. The Doctor looked up with her, the smile remaining on his face.

"Rose Tyler, you are brilliant," he looked over and her gaze remained fixed on the stars. [Larissa are you ready for the total fluff that is about to ensue?] He wouldn't let anything hurt her, if it was the last thing he ever did. Rose was the light that had healed him so long ago; she was all he had. She was everything to him, and he knew he could never tell her. He was afraid she would run off if she knew the truth. It sounded silly, but he couldn't risk losing her. Ever. He smiled as he looked at her, thinking to himself how wonderful she was and she didn't even know it. Other people didn't see Rose as anything special, but to him she was in her own class.

She was the one who had saved him. And now it was his turn to save her.

[YOUR TURN HAVE FUN]

{You have no idea how much I hate you right now!}

They headed to the overgrown forest. "Now, remember, no matter what, under no circumstances, will you ever turn around and look back."

"I know, Doctor, I know."

Continuing through the woods they were mostly quiet. Even though the creature was probably following them, they didn't want to give any hints as to where they were if it wasn't. Every so often, the Doctor would look up at the sky, using the stars as a guide to their next location.

Once in a while there would be a creak or a crack of something snapping. But they kept moving, forward, not looking back. Eventually they came to a clearing where there seemed to be several wooden pillars.

"Doctor, what is this supposed to be?"

{More questions from Rose…}

[ohmygawd]

"Not sure Rose. They almost look like trees with the tops cut off. I wonder…" the Doctor trailed off, pulling out his sonic screwdriver once again.

"Hey, Doctor, look at this."

"Yeah, Rose. What is it?" he said, putting away the sonic screwdriver.

"It's another one of those notes."

The Doctor walked up to where Rose was standing, "what's this one say?"

"Nothin'. There's just a picture of a bunch of trees and a man. Who has _really_ long arms, by the way."

"Hmm…wonder why this one doesn't say anything, and the other two do..."

"Do you think it has any meanin'?"

"Not really sure, but hey if what the thing really wants is the TARDIS, then I think these pages are really just a distraction to keep us occupied."

"Well, hey, we can look at it this way. We've gotten three pages now, only five more to go. I think we might just be ok."

{I've hit a wall…what do I do now?}

[we need lives]

[hello Mexican…oh wait your white…

The adventures of Larissa and Alyssa]

"Lemme see that page."

Rose handed over the crude drawing to the Doctor who scanned it with his sonic (quite like everything else) and examined it with a studious gaze.

"Is it…it can't be…but…that's impossible…that's absolutely impossible!"

[THANK YOU LARISSA FOR PUTTING IN THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE THAT'S LITERALLY ALL HE SAYS. AND WE ALL KNOW THE SECOND HE SAYS THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE THAT SHIT JUST WENT DOWN BECAUSE IT'S OBVIOUSLY NOT IMPOSSIBLE. THE DOCTOR DOESN'T SAY SOMETHING'S IMPOSSIBLE IF IT'S ACTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE]

"Doctor?"

"They should be gone…this isn't possible!" the Doctor knotted his hands in his hair like that would somehow give him an answer.

"Doctor, just tell me what's wrong!"

"These creatures, the one here in the picture, they shouldn't exist anymore. At all. They were placed inside a time lock, on the outer edges of the universe. They should have been virtually erased from existence! Now this, this is just a drawing but when you put the pieces together it makes sense! It shouldn't even be possible though!" the Doctor paused, trailing off. "It escaped, it ran. It's just like me. We should be dead and gone but we're not. Instead we're the last of our kind."

The Doctor started to walk away from the wooden trees and down the path in front of them, Rose running up next to him.

"Doctor, I'm sorry I'm asking so many questions but you're not making any sense what is goin' on?"

The Doctor didn't even falter as he began to explain things to Rose, "The Time War wasn't between just the Daleks and the Time Lords. It involved countless other planets and races, several of which were wiped from existence. This one…I had a hunch this creature might have been from there…their species was cast off to the edge of the universe and imprisoned inside a Time Lock. The same thing happened to my people. But I escaped it, mainly because I caused it. It seems we have a refugee from there too."

"But I don't understand, it's just a picture, and not a very good one at that."

"It's a clue. It knows that I know what it can do. Don't look at its face; don't turn around, impossibly long arms, the broken technology, and the mind games. It's practically telling me flat out what planet it came from, and once you spot the TARDIS you know where I'm from. It's not just looking for power but revenge! My people locked its people away and now it has a chance to get back at me! Why didn't I see it sooner?"

"What is it?"

"Their real name is lost, unknown to the universe. They're so ancient that most people have long forgotten them. I came to know them as the slendermen, and the one that has us here is the last one. My people locked them away because they were too powerful and too dark. They had the defenses and firepower of a Dalek and the mindset of an angry Time Lord all rolled into their bodies. It wants the TARDIS, but it also wants revenge. That's why it's leaving these clues for us, why it's playing these mind games. It wants me to know who my murderer is before I die."

{were the hell am I supposed to go from here?}

{is the Mexican back?}

[no ][I honestly have no idea what that bs I just wrote means it just sorta….happened….]

The pair had been walking and reached yet another clearing with two brick walls that crisscrossed so they made a perpendicular x.

"It's planting these clearings and landmarks for its game. I have a feeling it's going to get more difficult as we go along," murmured the Doctor, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and scanning the first corner.

"Nope, still nothing…wait...wait…I'm picking something up now…no…it can't…but…" the Doctor began to pace, running his hand through is head as well.

"What is it?"

He didn't respond, still deep in thought.

"Doctor, there's another page here. It's another drawing, only it says 'follows'…"

"What-" the Doctor started to ask as he tore down the paper from the brick wall.

Just then there was a crack, louder than any others they had heard before.

"He's here…"

"Wha-"

"RUN!" the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and took off, running forwards.

[I KNOW THEY'RE ABOUT TO DIE AND SHIT BUT I LOVE YOU THANK YOU]

Without question, Rose's feet kicked into gear and followed the Doctor's command before her own brain could comprehend what was going on. Blood pounded in her ears as they ran for their lives from whatever the hell was following them.

[I just had coffee be warned]

Rose could feel the creature behind them growing closer, hot on their heels. The Doctor's legs pushed him faster and farther along, but Rose struggled to keep pace. He was running far faster than usual.

It was dark, the flashlight's beam bounced around the woods giving them no way to light their path. The sound of blood pounding in her ears grew louder as the continued to run. They haphazardly dodged trees and she held onto the Doctor's hand for dear life.

[guess what. You get the trip scene I'm all out]

With the flashlight bouncing around, Rose had no idea where her feet were landing. She couldn't see the ground below her. Her foot caught on a tree root sticking up from the ground. She fell forward, letting go of the Doctors hand to brace her fall.

The realization that Rose had let go didn't come until he went to tighten his grasp on her hand. He stopped then, dead in his tracks. His first thought: _I've failed her. _

[I HATE YOU SO MUCH LARISSA YOU JUST MADE MY HEART HURT LIKE ACTUALLY HURT THERE WAS PAIN GODDAMMIT I DIDN'T SAY YOU COULD DO THAT]

The Doctor's mind raced. He couldn't finish any of his sentences.

[I CAN'T DO THIS I HATE YOU! STOP LAUGHING YOU SADIST] He turned around to see if she was still there. His hearts skipped a beat when he realized that she was only a few feet away. He went to run back to her when he noticed what was behind her. Standing only a foot away was the Slenderman. The Doctors breath caught in his throat. [I'M ACTUALLY TERRIFIED RIGHT NOW GODDAMMIT RUN DOCTOR RUN LIKE THE F'IN WIND. This is totally the caffeine]

"ROSE!"

She looked up, then behind her to see what the Doctor was looking at.

[WHY Can inot WORK caPS lock?!]

"NO!" the Doctor screamed but it was too late. She had already turned around.

Rose knew she was supposed to be getting up and running for her life, but she was frozen in place. It was like her legs were cemented to the ground.

In front of her was an unnaturally tall man dressed in a pitch black suit looming over her. Several black tentacle like arms protruded from his back, floating around him like they were poised to strike at any moment. His face though, was what nailed Rose to the ground. He had no face. It was just a blank, featureless head attached to a towering man, but yet somehow Rose could still see the anger etched into its face. The blood pounding in her ears crescendoed to an unbearable volume as she stared up at the monster in front of her.

_I've failed her, I've failed her_, he couldn't stop the single thought from repeating over and over inside his head as he turned and ran towards Rose. He felt like he was running underwater, his legs weighed down and his shoes made from lead. Every second seemed to last forever, only thinking _I've failed her, I've failed her._ [ok this happens to me in dreams and I swear to god it scares the shit out of me every time]

He failed her, and his light was going to go out.

It felt like eternity, but the Doctor finally reached Rose. Stumbling down to help lift her up, he grabbed her by her upper arm and hefted her to her feet, pulling her along with him.

"LOOK AWAY. ROSE, RUN!"

Rose's head was pounding. Not only was the volume unbearable, but there was a high pitched static constantly flowing through her head. She could feel herself being picked up, but her limbs wouldn't respond. She couldn't think straight. Everything hurt. And she was far more than afraid.

[here you go sissy!]

The Doctor, not able to get Rose to move, picked her up and started to run. [I DIDN'T TELL YOU YOU COULD DO THIS YOU MADE IT HURT THEN YOU MADE IT SCARY THEN I MADE IT ANXIOUS AND NOW YOU MADE IT CUTE STAHP] He hoped he could get her far enough away from the Slenderman before he came after them. She seemed almost unresponsive. He could feel her heart beating, and her chest rising and falling with a breath.

Finally Rose moved. The Doctor put her down and grabbed her hand once again, this time holding on even tighter than before. They ran, hard and fast. Running on nothing but the adrenaline pumping through their veins. They continued to run until they reached a boulder surrounded by several jagged rocks.

Rose and the Doctor slowed, and then came to a stop. Rose was panting, still in somewhat of a shock.

The Doctor, whose hearts raced with worry, went to Rose to check if she was ok. He noticed as they ran that she had a slight bit of a limp. He knew that her leg was at least sprained. He did a visual scan to see if she was bruised or broken in any way. It seemed that she was physically ok. But mentally, there was no way of telling.

"Rose, I, uh, know your probably not, but are you ok?" his voice was strained a little, still full of worry.

Rose looked up at him with those eyes. She was fear stricken. He could see it in her eyes. Her mouth opened and then closed. She looked down, then back up, opening her mouth once more.

She tried to speak, but nothing came out.

"Right, then."

Rose looked the Doctor in the eyes, seeing the fear and worry and protectiveness. She tried to speak again, hoping that this time words would form. However, yet again nothing came out of her mouth.

[YOU GAVE HER SHOCK-INDUCED MUTISM I MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE TO KILL YOU]

{Love you…}

[You might die tonight]

{but you told me to write a caring and stuff}

[I DIDN'T SAY MAKE MY FEELINGS HAVE THEIR OWN FEELINGS]

{but it makes the story better that way}

[you're an asshole. I'm fixing this bullshit]

Rose started to panic. What had happened to her voice? Fear and worry were etched into the Doctor's features, almost carving them into his features like stone.

"Rose? Rose, can you speak?" the Doctor's voice picked up a bit of panic and he held onto her shoulders protectively.

She shook her head and tears formed in her eyes, streaming down her cheeks. Watching Rose cry broke the Doctor's hearts into millions of little pieces. {Gaaaaaaaaah!} He couldn't do it, and he knew it was his fault.

"Rose, Rose listen to me, it's ok. You'll be ok. You need to calm down," his voice was soft and comforting as he rubbed her shoulders. She continued to cry, eliciting a sniffle. Her head was down and the Doctor knew it was a bold move for him but he shoved reason to the back of his head and moved one of his hands from her shoulder to cup her cheek, lifting her head up.

Her teary eyes met his pain filled brown ones. They both looked broken as they gazed at each other.

"Rose, you'll be fine. You're just in shock. Your voice will come back when you calm down and your body returns to normal. Just try to breathe." {dsagdsafdsfdsaFDSfAHJUDS} [I would prefer if you didn't try to break my mom's laptop]

Rose nodded, her eyeliner and mascara smeared across her face. The Doctor had no idea where his sudden bout of confidence and levelheadedness came from, but he was sure glad he had it.

"Rose, I am so, _so _sorry. I am so sorry this ever happened and we ever landed here. It's my fault and I'm honestly so-" he was cut off when, with trouble, Rose pushed herself forward and enveloped the Doctor in a hug. She pulled him tight in her arms and it took him a moment to get over the fact that she was hugging him before he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her neck and hair.

She smiled and she felt the Doctor's arms wrap around her back and she could feel her pulse slow and try to regain its normal rhythm. Comfortingly, Rose drew circles on the Doctor's back and whispered a calming "shhh" in his ear.

"I'm so sorry Rose, I'm so-"

"Shhh"

It wasn't her telling him to hush, but her calming him down like a mother would console her crying child. [My mom always did this to me and it WORKED]. If she had her voice, she would have been able to tell him that he had no reason to be sorry, that this couldn't possibly be his fault. If anything, it was her fault. She was the idiot that tripped and almost got them killed by that…Slenderman thing. She was the one who couldn't get up and she wanted nothing more than to tell him that it wasn't his fault.

[here are some feels]

The Doctor didn't let go of Rose. He wanted to make sure that she knew he had her and that he was never going to let her go again. He wanted to make sure she knew that he would be there for her through the ends of time and space. [uhgeiuhrufhiuwquhiu awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww] {But knowing what happens in Doomsday, this is really sad…} [SHUT UP THAT WAS NOT NEEDED]

The Doctor's mind raced, trying to think of different ways that they could get out of here. They could head back to the TARDIS, but that might be a little risky. And there was no telling whether or not the power was back on inside. The only other plausible option he saw was to stay and get the rest of the eight pages. But he knew that if Rose couldn't go on, then he would find some other option.

"Rose," he said pulling his head back from her shoulder and lifting her chin to look her in the eyes. "I need to know if you're ok to go on. We should either head back to the TARDIS or keep going and look for the rest of the notes. Either way, I don't think it would be the best idea to stay here."

Rose looked at the Doctor, she saw in his eyes reassurance, and felt that as long as they were together, nothing bad could happen. She nodded her head to let him know that she was ok to go on.

To show that she wanted to explore some more, she slowly stood up on shaky legs. She took a slow step forward and felt a sharp pain in her left ankle. She lost her balance and began to fall backwards. The Doctor caught her and whispered in her ear, "I got you." [Larissa you are a perfect human being] {So does this mean you forgive me for the what I wrote earlier?} [no]

With his help, Rose stood up once again. She leaned against the Doctor for support and together they walked towards the rock foundations. Right away the Doctor noticed a sheet of notebook paper attached to the rock.

"Here we go! Another page!" continuing to support Rose with one arm, the Doctor snatched the fifth page from the rocks and stuffed it into his pockets, not bothering to read what it said. It didn't matter to him anymore. All that mattered was getting Rose out safe.

Walking forward, the Doctor noticed that instead of two paths breaking out from the clearing there were three. The middle one led to an even larger clearing in what appeared to be the center of the forest.

[are we gonna eat all the inspirational cookies?]

{sure..why not}

[we're having dinner soon and my weight sucks but these things are heroin in cookie form]

{meh… what is this thing called weight you speak of}

[I need to talk with the Chips Ahoy manager about the addictiveness of their cookies. I can go through a box of these in an hour…obviously xD]

{I could too… I LOVE food}

Around seven or eight oil tanks sat parked in front of them in the clearing. [random cat walkin through my yard] Beyond that the Doctor could swear he saw a building. Why would there be a building in the middle of a forest?

"Rose, you alright?" the Doctor asked, making sure she was ok. She nodded and started to move forward, still supported by the Doctor. She tried putting weight on her injured ankle and let out a hiss in pain. Protectiveness and guilt shot through the Doctor like a bolt of lightning {daaaaw} as he tightened his grip around her and pulled her closer.

"I guess not," he murmured and she shot him a dark look that clearly read, "I'm fine shut up" but he was having none of it. It was his fault, and it killed him that she was in pain.

"We only have three more pages to go, and then we've beaten this Slenderman's stupid game," he said as he maneuvered himself and Rose around the oil tanks, searching for a possible page. On about the fourth tank he inspected, he found another page that read "ALWAYS WATCHES, NO EYES". The Doctor grimaced as he snatched the page down, remembering the glimpse he got of Slenderman's featureless face.

He shoved the page into his bigger-on-the-inside pockets and lead Rose across the clearing to the building. When they reached it, The Doctor, out of instinct, took out his sonic screwdriver. He quickly scanned the area.

"There doesn't seem to be anything here, so I think we are good for a little while."

The Doctor and Rose looked around the building for an entrance. When they found one the Doctor asked Rose, "Do you want to see if there's a note in here or do you want to keep going?"

She nodded once then gave him a look telling him that she was going to go in the building no matter what.

Once they entered, they noticed that the hallways were only big enough for one person in width.

"Ok, so here's the plan," The Doctor said, "you are going to go in front of me, and I will take the back. I promise you I won't leave you." He took Rose's hand in his and squeezed tightly to show that he was there and wasn't going to leave. [d'aw]

Rose went forward first, with the Doctor following right behind. He still held her hand, afraid that if he let go, she would disappear into thin are. [thin are, Larissa? Thin air. Thinking, it helps] He kept his head a bit to the left so he could see what was coming up. Whenever they came to a turn he would mumble a direction into her ear.

Every so often she would stumble and fall backwards, but he was there to catch her, just like he promised. [STAHP]

They were walking at a steady pace when all of a sudden Rose stopped dead in her tracks.

They were at the beginning of a long hallway with an eerie feel to it. At the end of a hallway they was a small light, and just seconds before, Rose thought she saw a shadow move across it.

"What is it, what do you see?"

She turned and looked at him, shaking her head, trying to show that she thought it was nothing, just her imagination. He didn't understand her gestures though. The Doctor saw the light at the end of the hallway and thought there could be something there.

"I'm going to go see what's there."

Still holding Rose's hand, he took a step past her then together they walked forward. [NO DON'T. YOU GET YOUR ASS BACK BEHIND HER] He took a few steps forward, guiding Rose behind him. He tightened his grip on her hand now that she was behind him, afraid now that he could no longer see her directly in front of him.

Rose took deep breaths, trying to calm her haywire nerves. The Doctor was right there, nothing was going to happen. Of course, that's when it did happen. Rose felt a chill down her spine and the hair on her neck raise. She felt cold arms wrap around her and her blood ran cold. She tried to scream, to do something to let the Doctor know that _it_ was behind her, but she couldn't. Her voice was still gone and the arm that the Doctor wasn't holding was being held tight against her side. Rose began panicking inside; wondering what was going to happen to her. She tightened her grip as hard as she could on the Doctor's hand, enough that she was wondering how he was still able to feel it.

"Just a little bit farther Rose," the Doctor said, hoping to regain feeling in the hand behind him holding onto Rose. But he knew she was scared like him so he just squeezed back. Fear rushed into Rose's mind.

He didn't get her message. She was helpless.

He went to hold a bit tighter on her hand and noticed that he no longer had her hand in his. He whipped around, wondering if she had fallen once again. But she wasn't there. She was nowhere in sight. [NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO] The Doctors hearts began to race once again as he ran back to where they had come from. He couldn't stop thinking about how he promised her that he wouldn't leave her and now she was gone.

It was then that the ear piercing scream came. It was a voice that the Doctor would know forever. It was _her _voice. He began running faster. [STOP. THIS ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE. STOP]

"DOCTOR!" Rose hoarsely screamed, her voice shocked back into functioning.

The Doctor panicked. He'd let her go again. He'd lost her again. She had disappeared once again and it was all his fault. He had to find her, protect her, no matter what the cost.

_I cannot lose her._ It was the only thought pumping through his brain, the only thing that kept him going. Because a life without Rose was nothing.

[so Larissa wrote like, 18 pages worth of stuff and I think she's trying to kill me using her writing to break my emotions]{Don't you mean KILK?}

[CHRISTOPHER DAVID MATTHEW KILKING GET YOUR ARSE DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT]

{And this is why I love you and no will ever be able to replace my sissy…}

"ROSE! ROSE HOLD ON!" the Doctor screamed, running down the halls after her. [You can hear him say that because he did in Doomsday right before Rose let go. You're welcome]

The white tile blurred as he ran down corridor after corridor, searching for Rose. Blood pounded in his ears, his hearts racing at impossible speeds. His legs moved as fast as they could, but yet he pushed his body harder and harder, further and further.

"ROSE!" _I cannot lose her. I cannot lose her I _promised _her I would protect her I _cannot _lose her!_

The Doctor rounded corner after corner, praying that he'd see some sign of her. A flash of blonde hair, a dash of color, and he prayed to anything out there that he would be able to find her.

_I'm nothing without her. Nothing. She saved me. _

He couldn't move fast enough. He pushed his body far past his limits, but to him he was moving at a snail's pace. He knew he wasn't going to find her in time to save her.

_I promised her I would protect her I _promised _her I _promised_ her!_

Color. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a splash of color against the blurred white. Coming to a halting stop, the Doctor turned and ran towards the splash of color he saw.

Down the hall as the white blurred, more color started to dance its way in. A splash here, a splash there.

The color started to grow on the floor and as the Doctor neared the end of the hall, he slowed to a walk, staring at what he saw on the floor.

Pools of blood adorned the white tile in front of his feet. His heartbeat pounded inside his head and he walked around it, a pit forming in the bottom of his stomach.

He knew what he would see, turning this corner into the room but he didn't want to believe it. He couldn't bring himself to.

The room was drenched in blood. The white tiles were smeared together with the crimson liquid sprayed and painted all across the room. It pooled on the floor and splattered the walls, dripping down like beads of water on a window. A few drops fell from the ceiling like the warning drops of rain. One landed on his cheek and rolled down like a bloody tear, but the Doctor was too paralyzed with guilt to wipe it away or even give it a thought.

Staring him in the face, accusing him of his guilt was a piece of notebook paper attached to the wall. Bloody fingerprints decorated it, and in blood the words "HELP ME" were haphazardly scrawled and smeared.

He knew he had been too slow. He knew he had been too late.

"Rose…"

He knew what the Slenderman was capable of. They were a fast species, faster than light. They held the element of stealth and surprise, and it was second nature for them to blend in with the darkness. Of course, he also knew about their arms, and what their arms could do. Finding this amount of fresh blood and no body made far too much sense to the Doctor. He knew what they could do, and he knew what this one had done.

Slowly, the Doctor walked across the room to the sheet of paper confirming his crimes. Gingerly, he plucked it from the wall and held it in his hand, eyes never leaving the page even as his vision blurred with tears. His trainers were soaked in blood (_her blood, Rose's blood) _as he walked over and back, staring at her final message.

He couldn't do it.

He couldn't save her.

He had failed her.

And now…Rose was…

Misery, guilt, sorrow and despair all transformed into boiling hot rage in an instant. He clutched the paper tightly in his hand, storming out of the claustrophobic white building. His anger pooled beneath him, bubbling and boiling in the pit of his soul. It drew every emotion and every thought into its storm. He wasn't the Doctor, not anymore. Not after what this thing had done to Rose.

_I failed her I promised her I would protect her and I_ failed_ her and whatever the hell this thing is, it's going to _pay.

{holy shit! Gaaaaaaaaa! This mess is making me sad…and angry…}

[first, it's hold the shit not holy shit. Second, it's your turn. I might be terrible at writing sappy love and making people have feels, but I'm good at writing homicide :D I have 78 pages of it in a rainbow notebook]

{it being in a rainbow notebook makes it look less suspicious. And I never thought I was good at writing sappy lovey feels…}

The Doctor's blood boiled, filling with rage. Slenderman was going to pay, and was going to pay for it big. No one can take Rose away from the Doctor and get away from it.

Storming out of the clearing, the Doctor saw another landmark out of the corner of his eye and ran off towards it, anger fueling his body. He reached what appeared to be a metal silo with a final note attached to the side, reading "CAN'T RUN".

He tore the note down, fire burning in his eyes.

"WHATEVER MADE YOU THINK I WAS RUNNING?! SHOW YOURSELF! I HAVE ALL EIGHT PAGES I BEAT YOUR STUPID LITTLE MIND GAME, SLENDERMAN!"

He paused, his anger growing.

[alright so we're writing these monologues back and forth basically in all caps gonna fix that later but yeah this is heavy]

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

"NO ONE HURTS MY ROSE TYLER AND GETS AWAY WITH IT. WHEN YOU WENT AFTER HER YOU MADE THIS PERSONAL. AND NOW YOU'RE GOING TO GET WHAT YOU DESERVE. BECAUSE THERE IS NOWHERE IN THIS UNIVERSE THAT YOU CAN HIDE. NO CORNER OF TIME THAT WILL KEEP YOU HIDEN FROM ME."

"YOU WANTED MY POWER AND YOU WANTED MY TARDIS. THAT I COULD LIVE WITH, THAT I COULD FORGIVE. BUT YOU KILLED ROSE TYLER. I KILLED OFF ALL OF THE DALEKS AND TIME LORDS IN ONE MOVE. I DESTROYED PLANETS AND WIPED OUT COUNTLESS RACES, INCLUDING YOUR OWN. AND YOU JUST MURDERED THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WHOLE OF REALITY TO ME. DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HIDE?! I WILL FIND YOU! AND WHEREVER YOU ARE I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL MAKE SURE YOU FEEL HER PAIN AND MY PAIN! DO YOU HEAR ME?! I AM THE DOCTOR, AND YOU'RE GOING TO SHOW YOURSELF BEFORE I HAVE TO HUNT YOU DOWN BECAUSE BELIEVE ME I WILL TRACK YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE UNIVERSE. YOU HAVE MADE YOUR LAST MISTAKE SLENDERMAN, BECAUSE YOU TOOK ROSE TYLER. THERE IS NOWHERE TO HIDE BECAUSE YOU KILLED HER!"

The Doctor waited there, every second that passed filled him with more rage. Moments passed, but each second felt like an eternity to the Doctor. In the silence of the forest, the Doctor could pick up a faint static noise coming from behind him.

Boldly turning around, the Doctor saw a figure off in the distance with nothing but a black suit and a white blank face.

"OVER HERE SLENDERMAN!"

The Doctor blinked and the creature was closer, towering over him about 10 feet away. The Doctor felt like he was dealing with a Weeping Angel instead, but even they would run if they had seen him like this. He was fire and ice and rage inside, and he was possibly the deadliest thing in existence right then. [That's a Chameleon Circuit line!~]

[Basically Slenderman has balls]

The Doctor pulled out the eight pages, and held them up for Slenderman to see.

"I played your game. I went along with it. But you, you crossed the line." The Doctor took all of the pages, except for the one drenched in Rose's blood, and ripped them into a million little pieces. He took the paper and threw it at the Slenderman.

The paper fell around the faceless man like white snow. Even though he didn't have a face, the Doctor though he could see a little smirk on the Slenderman.

"You hurt her, you _killed_ her and now you have to pay. I will make sure you suffer. You will never see the light of day every again. I can promise you that."

A grumble came from the throat of the Slenderman, sounding almost like a laugh to the Doctor.

"This page," the Doctor held up the remaining page that Rose had written on in her blood for the Slenderman to see. "Do you see this page? This was from her. She wrote this to me. This was her _dying _message to me. She had to write it in her own blood. Because of you."

The static the Doctor had been constantly hearing since the Slenderman arrived grew louder, pushing its way out of the background.

"You wanted the TARDIS, right? You wanted to use it to harness the power needed to live forever. Fine!" the Doctor darted off running off to where he had parked the TARDIS in the woods. He could hear the static behind him, knowing that the Slenderman was following close behind. The Doctor knew the Slenderman wouldn't kill him yet because he still wanted a way in to the TARDIS.

The Doctor arrived at his ship and threw open the doors to reveal the dimly lit console room. The TARDIS made an approving sound when her pilot returned, however when she noticed the Slenderman and Rose's absence her mood changed entirely.

Turning a few knobs and pulling some levers, the Doctor was able to reveal a hatch.

"You wanted to see the heart of the TARDIS? You wanted the power of the vortex running through you? Well here!"

Before the Slenderman was given a chance to even comprehend what the Doctor had just said, the Doctor threw open the hatch and dived out of the way. Golden light flooded the room and greed drew the Slenderman in, causing him to gaze with his blank face into the heart of the TARDIS; to absorb the vortex.

And that's when he knew what the Doctor had planned.

"You brought this on yourself. You wanted power? Well I gave you power. But I wanted you to feel pain, and I gave you that as well." His look darkened and the Slenderman truly understood why even the Daleks and the Weeping Angels feared this man, the Oncoming Storm.

"Now burn."

His gaze remained cold and brutal as he watched the Slenderman absorb the vortex and then the vortex absorb the Slenderman from the inside. He watched its body begin to glow with that golden light like his did a year ago, and he could remember how it felt, to be burning on the inside. It only took a few minutes for the vortex to kill him, and he had stared into it as a child. It would take even less time for the Slenderman to burn.

The light became almost too bright. The Doctor shielded his eyes with his hand as [Christopher David Matthew…] the Slenderman exploded into dust, covering the entire inside of the TARDIS.

[I'm half asleep again. 'So what'd you do this weekend?' 'Oh I killed Slenderman' '…how?' 'Oh, y'know, just opened up the heart of the TARDIS so he could absorb the vortex and "explode into dust", exact words' '….oh']

[I'm actually napping while she writes this this has taken us ALL DAY]

{Is that good, I kilked Slenderman for you. You can write noe…your welcome, by the way}

[You made me cut my nap short. Screw you]

The Doctor lowered his hand, examining the ash coating every surface inside the TARDIS. At almost the exact same moment, the TARDIS powered up again and with great difficulty the Doctor was able to close the hatch to her heart without exposing himself to her light too badly.

"Sorry girl, but I had to. I had to do it for her. He…he killed Rose…"

The TARDIS let out waves of pain and sympathy for her Doctor and her Bad Wolf. The Doctor ran his hands along her console, before sitting himself down on the weathered white seat.

{there's a sparkly on my fist, I'm going to punch you with it! Wahhh!}

[I was choking on inspirational cookies earlier and you were dying laughing over that so you punching me with one single sparkle on your fist is not the weirdest thing to happen today]

{wuv you lyssa}

[I can't believe we're actually getting this accomplished]

{ya…we never actually finish anything…}

Collapsing in on himself, the Doctor placed his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. His fingers were sprawled across his face, as if he was trying to smooth out the creases formed on his face from worry.

[Larissa had to go home (after over 24 hours but still…) so now it's lonely and I have to go to bed]

_I failer her I promised her I would protect her I _promised _her I would keep her safe and now she's _dead.

Tears formed in the Time Lord's eyes as his hearts continued to shatter into billions of tiny pieces.

_I lost her. She's gone. Forever. And its all my fault._

_Jackie. What in the world am I going to tell Jackie? She'll want to see her daughter but there's nothing left...I can't run from it that wouldn't be fair to Rose._

_I'm sorry, Rose. I am so, so _so _sorry. I'm sorry you got hurt. I'm sorry we ever came here. I'm sorry I let go of your hand. I'm sorry I stood in front. I'm sorry you couldn't grow older.I'm sorry that I'll have to be the one to tell your mother. _{D'aaaaaw} {And sadness is taking over…}

_I'm sorry you died , Rose. I'm sorry I let you get killed and I am so very, very , _very _sorry for the amount of pain that you went through when he...when he..._

_I know nothing I say will change things or make this pain any easier to bear. Death is irreversible. It's a fixed point in time. But Rose, I would trade anything to have died in your place anyday. I'm sorry I never told you how much you mean to me. You saved me. I was a broken man, a murderer with the blood of millions upon millions coating my hands and you healed me. I _need _you Rose Tyler and now I've lost you._

_I broke my promise and I am so, _so _sorry._

Tears streamed freely down the Doctor's cheeks, his thin form wracked with sobs. Guilt and grief overtook him, reducing him a broken mess curled in on himself begging that this was all a nightmare and he had not just let the most important thing in his world slip through his fingers. {NO, Doctor it will be ok!}

But he knew he wasn't dreaming and that he had lost Rose forever and he would never see her again. He'd never see her smile or hear her laugh. He's never feel her hand in his or. Share in her warm embrace ever again. The Doctor let his guilt consume him, silently wondering if misery could kill for that's what it felt like.

Losing Rose was worse than dying a thousand times over.

"Doctor?"

No. No no no no no. It wasn't possible. She was gone.

"Doctor?"

[Why is I Am the Doctor playing on repeat helping me with such dark ideas?]

{I'm listening to I Am the Doctor right now too…}

Ever so slowly, the Doctor lifted his head out his hands and looked up to see...

No. It couldn't be her. I couldn't be. She was gone.

"...Rose?" The Doctor asked in a shaky voice barely above a whisper, not believing his eyes.

"Doctor, why are you cryin'?" She took a step towards him.

He blinked away a few tears, never taking his eyes from her, afraid that she would vanish.

"Rose...I..."

She gave him a puzzled look.

"I must be dreaming..." he said to himself but he couldn't recall falling asleep. He ran his hands over his face, trying to wipe away the tears and smearing the drop of her blood against his skin.

"Doctor, why is there blood on your face? What happened?"

"Rose...I...I am so _so _sorry..."

"Why?"

"I let this happen, its my fault. I should've stayed behind you I should've paid more atention to what was going on but I was afraid of losing you and now..."

"Doctor, what are you talkin' about? Nothin' happened."

That's when it hit him the Slenderman's mind games. They didn't cease with death, did they? He didn't recall falling asleep because he never did.

Rose was either a hallucination or a ghost. She wasn't real. He was wide awake and she wasn't real.

Shakily standing up, the Doctor put a hand on the back of the old white seat the steady himself and turned away from her, refusing to look at her knowing she wasn't real.

"Doctor-"

"Don't." He cut her off coldly, trying to keep his shaky voice under control. "You're not real. You can't be. He's just playing another mind game with me. He can't even let me mourn in peace."

"Why would be mournin'?"

"Because you're dead, Rose. He killed you and its _my _fault," he stated coldly.

"But I'm not dead I'm here-"

"You're just a hallucination!" The Doctor screamed, misery wracking his voice. He took several breaths through his teeth, trying to keep himself from breaking again. _She's not real, she's not real. _{NO NO NO NO NO NO! SHE'S REAL DOCTOR SHES THERE JUST LISTEN TO HER!}

[Its been so quiet in the commentary because were separated now and it feels weird I hope sissy puts some stuff in]

"But, Doctor-"

"No. You're dead. Gone and it's all my fault…I- I…" the Doctor paused to let out a small hiccup in his voice. This was just too much for him. "I didn't save you. And it wasn't because I couldn't. Because I could have, I really could have saved you. No. It was because I _failed you_. I failed you in every way possible. I didn't pay enough attention to you. Rose Tyler, I'm so sorry. I deserve to be dead and not you." [the pain thing from before? Remember that? It happened again]

"Doctor, what is all this that you're sayin'? I'm not dead Doctor. Nothin's happened to either of us."

The Doctor didn't understand. Why did she believe that she wasn't dead? How could she now remember the pain? He hoped that's how it was, when you died. When she died. Unless…but it couldn't be….

Nothing had happened to either of them. They were the same. Of course, that explained it. He had died as well. That's why he could see her, that's why she was so confused.

"Oh. Rose."

"Doctor, what is it?"

The Doctor realized then that when he opened the heart of the TARDIS, he must have looked into her too. The vortex killed him and the Slenderman.

So this is what death felt like. It felt like living, only knowing you weren't. This is what he had feared for all these years? It wasn't so bad, considering ghosts could talk to one another apparently. Still though, Rose would never be able to grow older or have a family. She'd never be able to do all those things in life everyone else got to because he failed her.

"Rose, don't you see. I killed the Slenderman. And in the process I caused my own death as well…"

"What are you talkin' about Doctor. Neither of us are dead. This must be his trick. This is all the Slenderman's trick. Don't you see it, Doctor?"

"No, Rose, don't you see it. We're both dead. And all because of me…" the Doctor trailed off.

Rose stood there, gaping at the Doctor. She couldn't believe it. He blamed himself for everything. I wasn't his entire fault. It was partially hers too. She was the one who tripped and then got captured later. She couldn't stand it to see him hate himself. It wasn't right. He didn't deserve this. He's done so much for her these past few months. He brought her to the end of the universe and back again. And he was always there to save her life. Now she had to do something to make sure that he knew.

Rose slowly walked towards the Doctor. He looked at her as she walked forward. When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around her, pulling him in for a tight hug. She then went on her tiptoes and gave the Doctor a kiss on the cheek.

She lifted her mouth to his ear and whispered to him, "I've _got_ you, Doctor. And I'm very much alive. And so are you." [iofdnqowndoqjwl;JDOIJWAjLjsNLN;. STOP LARISSA STOP I HAVE BEEN REDUCED TO A BALL OF FEELS YOU CAN STOP NOW]

The Doctor pulled back from her and looked her in the eyes. He saw something there in that moment and he _knew_ she wasn't dead. He _knew_ he wasn't dead either. He _knew _this wasn't a dream or some cruel hallucination. He was here and so was Rose.

"Rose Tyler," he said, joy filling his saddened voice.

"Doctor," she looked at him.

He pulled her in for a hug, picking her up along the way. Rose began laughing and the Doctor's face lit up with a huge grin.

"You're here," the Doctor said. "But, how?"

"I don't know. One minute I was with you, then the Slenderman grabbed me and the next thing I knew, I was gone .I really don't remember anythin' that happened then, it was all a blur. Then I remember suddenly waking up, pinned against a tree by some invisible force and next thing I know it's gone. I didn't understand it, but I knew it was you who saved me. Doctor, you saved me, just like you always do."

"Oh, Rose…you see..."

Rose looked at the Doctor," so, why'd you think I was dead?"

The Doctor took a deep breath. "There was this room, and it was covered in blood. I thought it was yours. And then there was a note there, it read "HELP ME," and it was written in blood. I thought it was you, Rose. I thought I'd lost you."

Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand a squeezed it. "You know, Doctor. No matter how many times they try, they'll never ever be able to split us up."

She smiled at him then, and he smiled back, knowing that he got his got his light back. And know that he had her back in his grasp, he was never going to let go again.


End file.
